Doctoral Programmes

Vishal George is a first year PhD Scholar with the School of Social Sciences at NIAS. His primary research interests lie in Sports Sociology, Urban Studies, Culture Studies, as well as Media Studies. 

Educational Background: 
BA in English Literature, St. Xaviers College (Autonomous), Mumbai
MA in Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi

Thesis Title: 
Youth, Sports, and Urban Spaces: An Ethnography of Youth Sporting Culture in Urban India

Tirthankar is a Doctoral scholar in the education programme at the School of Social Sciences, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru. His doctoral thesis, "The “Self in Classrooms”: Exploring Identities through Narratives from Teaching of Social Sciences," focuses on the intersection of education, identity, and social location. This research involves auto-ethnography, critical pedagogy, and narrative analysis.

Before joining the PhD program at NIAS,  Tirthankar had gained valuable experience for more than six years in the education sector as a teacher, researcher, curriculum developer, and program design leader in Delhi, Maharashtra and Karnataka. He has worked with government functionaries, educational technology and early-stage social entrepreneurs, contributing to developing innovative educational initiatives.

Surachita Lal is PhD Scholar at NIAS. She is working with Prof. Anitha Kurup. Her research interests lie in Caste, Class and Gender intersectionality, Social exclusion, Sociology of Education. Her current proposed thesis title is “Travelling through the Portal of Engineering Colleges: Experience of Dalit Girls in India (A Study of Uttar Pradesh)

Before inducting as PhD student at NIAS, she has completed her M.Phil. in Women Studies from Tata Instituted of Social Science in 2021. She qualified for NFSC scholarship under UGC net in Sociology, 2020 November. She did her Master of Arts in Sociology from Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tondon Open University in 2015 and as well as master in Gender Studies from Ambedkar University Delhi in 2018. She did her Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from University of Delhi.

Navaindu Joshi is a Ph.D. scholar at the School of Social Sciences, NIAS. Prior to this, he completed his Master’s in Education from Azim Premji University and Bachelor’s in Chemistry from Delhi University. 

After completing his Master's, he has also worked in the education sector in the domains of teacher professional development, content development, and content assessment.

His research interest lies in the area of the sociology of education. He is specifically interested in exploring research topics related to school culture, classroom interaction, school and society relations, and the aspirations and social identity of students. 

Navaindu is working under Dr Jeebanlata Salam on the research topic: Life in School-Interaction, Meaning, Identity, and Aspiration.

Ashirwad Wakade is Ph.D. Scholar at NIAS. Before inducting as a Ph.D. student at the institute, he worked with Indian-Political Action Committee(I-PAC) for the West Bengal State Assembly elections. He also worked as a Project Associate with Azim Premji University for developing India-Covid Assessment and Response Dashboard.  He was also a consultant for the Telangana Government’s Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society.

He has completed his Master of Arts in Education (Elementary) from Tata Institute of Social Sciences Mumbai(TISS), and Bachelor of Science in Physics at Fergusson College, Pune. 

Ashirwad is working with Dr. Shivali Tukdeo. His areas of interest include Sociology of Education, Rural Higher Education, Politics and Higher Education, and Education Policy.

Aiswarya is a first year Ph.D. scholar at the Education Program, School of Social Science, NIAS.

Thesis title: Life and Learning on the Move:  A Study of Murshidabad-Perumbavoor migration corridor and Family Strategies for Education

Educational background: Master’s in Social Work from Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Chennai

Zakhiya is a PhD Scholar working with Prof. Anindya Sinha. Her research interests lie in Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution. Her current proposed thesis title is "Primate Worlds: Demographic Structure and Dynamics, Social Networks and Life-History Strategies in Wild Bonnet Macaques.’

Before inducting as PhD student at NIAS, she acquired her integrated Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degree from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (IISER Pune, 2015-2020). She did her Master’s Thesis titled ‘Effect of species richness and composition on foraging niche in mixed-species bird flocks' at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science (2019-2020) with Prof Kartik Shankar. She qualified GATE 2021 in Ecology and Evolution with an AIR 21 and the TIFR GS2021 examination. Her PhD is funded by the NIAS Fellowship program upon clearing the NIAS entrance process.

She is interested in understanding patterns, processes, and evolution of behavior, currently focused on macaques with a vision to eventually understand the human species and their socio-cultural systems better. For her PhD she will be working on data collected through 2000-2020 from the Bandipur Mudumalai Bonnet Macaque population

Ankita Sharma is PhD Scholar at NIAS. She is working with Prof. Anindya Sinha. Her research interests lie in Urban Ecology, Functional Diversity, and Arthropod studies. Her current proposed thesis title is "The Arthropod City: Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Ants and Spider Assemblages across an Urban Gradient in Guwahati, Assam, Northeastern India. 

Before inducting as PhD student at NIAS, she has completed her Masters in Science in Environmental Biology and Wildlife Sciences from Cotton University, Assam and 2020. She qualified for the INSPIRE Fellowship 2020. She has also qualified the GATE in Ecology and Evolution with an AIR 123. She completed her Bachelors in Zoology from Cotton University, Assam in 2018

Title of the Thesis:

The Arthropod City: Taxonomic and Functional Diversity of Ant and Spider Species Assemblages across an Urban Gradient in Guwahati, Assam, Northeastern India.

The ever-growing urbanization is responsible for restructuring biotic communities. The structure and functioning of a community can be understood with the help of its species diversity, abundance and, functional diversity. Functional diversity is a parameter measuring the variation in the functional traits of different organisms. The shifts in functional traits can be used to estimate and understand the sensitivity of various species towards changing ecosystems such as urbanized areas. Arthropods are a sensitive group of organisms and exhibit a range of traits. I propose to understand the relationship between changing patterns of functional and taxonomic diversity and the increasing rate of urbanization, by comparing the functional diversities of ants and spiders across Guwahati. The study will help in evaluating beta diversity, conservation research, habitat construction, and restoration projects within urban cities globally.